LEBANON: Released amateur video shows dire humanitarian situation and destruction inside Nahr al-Bared refuge camp just before Lebanese army's latest military assault on May 31

Record ID: 1548384

  • Title: LEBANON: Released amateur video shows dire humanitarian situation and destruction inside Nahr al-Bared refuge camp just before Lebanese army's latest military assault on May 31
  • Date: 3rd June 2007
  • Summary: (W2) NAHR AL-BARED CAMP, LEBANON (RECENT) (AMATEUR VIDEO - REUTERS MATERIAL) BLOOD ON THE STREET SOMEONE WIPING BLOOD OFF A WOUNDED MAN IN CLINIC VARIOUS OF PEOPLE TRYING TO HELP A WOUNDED MAN IN CLINIC WOUNDED MAN AND WOMAN NEXT TO HIM, PAN TO (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) WOMAN SAYING: "They shelled us. Two huge shells landed on my house. The whole house fell on us. They destroyed us."
  • Embargoed: 18th June 2007 18:15
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: War / Fighting,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA9VFI2I0JA9KLBLISYY58WE7EC
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: An amateur video shows a dire humanitarian situation and destruction inside Nahr al-Bared just before the Lebanese army's latest military assault.

    An amateur video filmed recently by a resident of Nahr al-Bared refugee camp shows the situation inside the camp before the Lebanese army's latest military assault on May 31.
    Multiple wounded appear to have little access to medical facilities and bodies are crowded inside a small room that is the clinic. The video was shot before the army launched its heaviest assault on the militants last week.
    The Lebanese army has been fighting Islamist militants inside the camp since May 20. Most of the camp's nearly 40,000 population fled to other refugee camps in the past two weeks due to increasingly desperate humanitarian conditions.
    But some 5,000 to 7,000 remain with no running water, electricity, medicine or food. Humanitarian agencies have warned of a deteriorating situation for residents in the camp and has appealed to both sides to allow safe passage for aid.
    Even though Palestinians have little sympathy for Fatah al-Islam militants, they are angry that the army's shelling of the camp is killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure.
    Lebanese troops, backed by artillery, tanks and gunships, tightened their grip around the al Qaeda-inspired militants on Sunday (June 3), the third day of a military assault to crush the gunmen.
    The intense shelling since Friday has devastated large parts of the camp, bringing down buildings used by the gunmen to fire at the troops but also destroying many civilian homes.
    At least six soldiers have been killed in the fighting since Friday, while more than 16 people, militant and civilian, have died in the camp. Fatah al-Islam said it has lost three fighters.
    The fighting is Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.
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  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: WARNING: Editors please note, this clip contains graphic material
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